Fanwood Nature Center — Attraction in Fanwood

Don’t bother with this place. It is run down and dilapidated. Looks like it hasn’t been up kept in years; it’s not simply a seasonal thing, as in it got run down over the winter. Shrubs and undergrowth have taken over the “trails” and even the benches. Some benches are so overgrown you can barely see them let alone sit on them. All the wood structures in the place are rotting away, including benches, bird boxes/houses, signage and bike racks. The “bird blind” they advertise is a cheap backyard wooden fence, not an actual bird blind. Plus, an entire section of said fence has fallen over, thus making the “bird blind” not longer a functioning bird blind.

Graffiti is on the bridges going over the stream. Bird feeders are broken and the ones that aren’t are never filled. The entrance sign is falling over. The bulletin board has a brochure in it that is so faded you can’t read it and the wooden brochure box has nothing in it but people’s trash (plus it’s rotting away like the rest of the wood in the place). It’s a muddy swamp in there too, even if it hasn’t rained in a week. There is no dedicated parking, only on street parking in people’s neighborhood.

There is a deer exclusion fence that runs around the entire perimeter of the "nature center." What is the point of a nature center if you purposely exclude nature? There is even a portion of deer fence that runs through the middle of the “nature center.” As a result the biggest “nature” you will see are neighborhood house cats or possibly feral cats roaming around. Very few birds because of the cats. You don’t even see squirrels in there. I quietly sat in there for 20 minutes and didn’t see nor hear any animals except for cats. And this was on a warm sunny day at 9 am. Been there a few days a week, for multiple weeks to see if it was just a 1 time occurrence, but it wasn’t.

On top of all that they randomly close the public nature center without notice for no apparent reason. They wrap the aforementioned deer exclusion fence around all the entrances to keep people out too, not just the deer. Signs say it’s for goats eating invasive plants, but there are never any goats in there and you can see poison ivy growing right by the entrance. On top of that, an electric fence encircles the entire perimeter of the nature center, further deterring nature and people...

Just went today. Very disappointed. It has not been maintained. Many of the nature sign posts have nothing on them. The walking bridge looks like it’s been out of order for awhile. It’s in a residential neighborhood next to power lines...

Has gotten more swampy and needs an update would be good if a a boy scout that needs a Eagle Scout project put some repairs to damaged bridge and cleaned up other storm damages...